High-Definition Multimedia Interface (“HDMI”) is an audio/video (“AV”) interface commonly used to interconnect HDMI-equipped digital AV devices. Through HDMI interfaces, digital AV devices are able to transmit and receive uncompressed digital data. For example, a digital AV source device (e.g., a set-top box) can transmit digital data representative of media content to a digital AV sink device (e.g., a television) by way of an HDMI cable interconnecting the devices. Since the development of the original version of the HDMI specification known as “HDMI 1.0,” a vast majority of major manufacturers of consumer electronic products has adopted the specification.
However, problems with interoperability between HDMI-certified devices have become prevalent. As an example, for a variety of possible reasons, when particular HDMI-certified devices are interconnected, certain HDMI-supported functionality of one or more of the devices may be inadvertently disabled. For instance, an HDMI-supported function of one HDMI-certified device may be disabled when the device is connected to another HDMI-certified device. As another example, certain HDMI-certified source devices may not output video and/or audio formats that are appropriate for certain HDMI-certified sink devices, and certain HDMI-certified sink devices may not respond appropriately to one or more video and/or audio formats provided by certain HDMI-certified source devices.
There are various reasons for the existence of these and other interoperability problems between HDMI-certified devices. One possible reason is the rapid development of the HDMI specification. Since the development of version 1.0 of the specification, several subsequent versions (i.e., versions 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4) have been developed and adopted within a relatively short period of time. Each version of the specification has been designed to increase the bandwidth and/or capabilities supported by HDMI connections. Consequently, HDMI devices certified to different versions of the specification may support different HDMI connection bandwidths and/or capabilities. Unfortunately, when HDMI devices certified in accordance with different versions of the specification are connected, one or more HDMI-supported features of one of the devices may be disabled when connected to another device that does not support the same feature(s).
In addition, interoperability problems exist even between HDMI devices that have been certified to the same version of the HDMI specification. This may be due to the tiered certification requirements of the HDMI specification in which certain HDMI features and/or functions are optional for certification under the HDMI specification. Accordingly, certification of devices to the same version of the HDMI specification does not guarantee that all HDMI-supported features and/or functions will be supported by the devices or available when the devices are interconnected. Moreover, while the HDMI specification specifies HDMI device capabilities required for certification, the HDMI specification does not require specific HDMI device behavior for certification.
Another possible reason for the problems with interoperability between HDMI-certified devices is that HDMI test equipment and/or methodologies have not kept pace with the evolution of the HDMI specification or the manufacture of a wide range of HDMI-certified devices. HDMI testing is difficult for a number of reasons, including, without limitation, the massive number of different makes and models of devices that are available for interconnection in an HDMI network (e.g., in a home theater system), the unique feature sets of the different versions of the HDMI specification, the tiered certification requirements that allow manufacturers of HDMI devices to meet only a subset of the entire specification, the plethora of media content (e.g., audio and video) formats that are available, and the historically sporadic or intermittent nature of HDMI interoperability problems.
To comprehensively test HDMI devices for interoperability problems using conventional HDMI testing equipment and/or methodologies would require an enormous physical footprint (to cover the massive number of different makes and models of equipment and possible configurations in which they can be interconnected), consume significant amounts of personnel resources (to perform manual testing operations), and be extremely costly. Therefore, there is a need for new and/or improved HDMI testing equipment and/or methodologies.